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For the past four years, I have been commissioned by Cape Town's MTN
SCienCentre www.mtnsciencentre.org.za to script and stage a work of theatre
covering a topic of scientific and educational interest. So far I have four
under my belt: three are one-man plays and the first i Klips! was performed
by one male white actor who played the sun and one black actress who played
the moon. This play commemorated our near total solar eclipse on 4th
December 2002. It was about African myths and legends of the moon in the
sun.

The others are Ta Ta Ma Genes a fifty minute one-man show on biotechnology
which takes a non-prescriptive look at amongst other, cloning, genetic
engineering and the history of the subject; this play linked in with the
50th anniversary of James Watson's and Francis Crick's discovery of the
structure of DNA; and, last year I wrote a short one called, Eureka!
Inventions that change the world to coincide with the ScienCentre's of
South African Inventions Exhibition.

Currently and something I did on April 15th is the ScienCentre's play
Imagining Einstein a 60 minute show about the man his work and the science
that surrounded him. I am touring it around our country with the aim of
reaching our youth. Should the funds be forthcoming I will take it to
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in Egypt for their Einstein Symposium in June.
Sadly I have just heard that these funds are not available.

Here I am as Albert Einstein.

So far, the play has received wonderful comments from adults and youngsters alike:

"Factually amazing, scientifical inspiration at its best. Very thought
provoking." - Anthony and Ansa Faull - Council for Geoscience

"Wunderbar, to see a play in South Africa of rich insight." - Gargen Roman (?)

"As a German that comes out of this era and an admirer of Albert Einstein
emotions were brought back I didn't know still existed. Thanks for a
wonderful show." - Erwin Gehring

"Much food for thought, great concept and presentation." – Michael Cunningham

"Brilliant! Gives me lots of ideas to take home to Kenya." - mmwingi@yahoo.co.uk

"Thought-provoking; makes one consider ones own teaching methods. Absolute
must for all science teachers." - Weedaad Nasiep

"Complex and Flawless performance." - Angus

"Very interesting and important to capture the scientific imagination of the
young ones, and who knows there might be more curious minds." - Laura Bishop

We are currently producing a short movie about this IYP which will include a junior school orchestra and choir as well as a ditty about Albert Einstein and his papers of 1905.

I have always had fun at school, although there were times that I just lived without analyzing what or why I was doing what I was doing. This resulted in being fairly naughty and I was sent to a boarding school during my final two years. The irony is that I didn't excel in science and mathematics. In fact because the school was situated in fruit farm territory I spent more time trying to find ways of picking delicious peaches, apples and bunches of grapes without getting caught rather than understanding why the sum of two angles of a triangle is equal to the external angle of the opposite internal angle. However due to a rather authoritarian method I managed to pass my final exams. During my school career I took biology as a subject but only got 11 per cent for the exams and yet I found myself writing and performing in a play about biotechnology. Today I know more about the subject than most of my peers.

What we learn at school may not be what we put into practise during our adult life. I also discovered that that which we don't like - I really didn't get a kick out of biology at school - very often turns out to be what we end up applying to our everyday life as we get older. A desire to possess something too much may result in it leaving you, whereas hating it too much may result in it following you, haunting you till one finally one gives in and allows it to be as I did with biology.

What I did and studied at school is not what I am doing now. Sometimes I see school as a big big baby-sitting place where children go so that you and I can get on and write to one another or do what we do for science and art. How can my/your/his/her child receive quality education when they are grouped with 30 children? Robin, my six year old, spends five hours at school per day. That's 300 minutes, but its divided among 30 children. Ten minutes! Ten Minutes is all he gets of individual attention.

So my belief is that school is where he learns patience, tolerance, caring and a little love. Here at home his parents ingrain the love of reading, of music and of imagination. Wouldn't it be great if we all spent less time trying to make lots of money so that we can travel the world and more time educating our children?

There is so much around our neighbourhood. We are overwhelmed with information. Fact is, we don't even need a radio let alone television to learn how an anteater survives in our back garden under the tomato plant. Look at the science, the maths in the technique of capturing the ant as it falls down the slope into the pinchers of the anteater insect.